a. Field of Invention
The present invention resides in the field of computers, and is particularly advantageous for personal computers where user skills range from professional to minimal. It is directed to a personal computer in which a manufacturer-programmed state can be restored without the loss of user files. It is especially useful against aging, spyware installation, user error, and virus invasion.
b. Description of Related Art
Backup and recovery methods for personal computers and most other computers have been evolving for a decade, fueled predominantly by the advent of partition image backup and restoration programs. A partition image is a sector-based copy of the contents of a mass storage device partition. Thus, a partition image contains both file/folder data and locational information relating thereto. A partition image backup and restoration program makes an exact copy of an entire mass storage device partition in the form of a partition image. The user performs a recovery operation by booting the computer to the partition image backup and restoration program, which mounts the partition image to the originating mass storage device partition from which the image was made. Such a method requires the user to make a newer partition image whenever he acquires, creates, or modifies files. A typical user neither possesses nor wishes to learn the skill necessary to create new partition images, and might find the need for such maintenance objectionable. Consequently, the use of a Partition Image Backup and Restoration Program will likely result in the loss of the user's most recent files. Moreover, a user who makes frequent partition images is faced with a dilemma wherein a recent partition image that contains all of the user's files may also contain the kind of corruption or degradation of the operating system for which backup and recovery is sought, thus obviating its benefit.
In light of the aforementioned compromises, other methods of protecting the functionality and integrity of the operating system have been developed as interim alternatives to whole-partition imaging. To wit, System File Checker (SFC) performs a check to verify that critical system files have not been altered or replaced. While this method affords protection of some files, other damage may occur that renders the personal computer unusable due to corruption of files that fall outside the scope of the System File Checker. Furthermore, it may be necessary or desirable to replace one or more protected system files, and such a protection scheme may actually interfere with legitimate and desired modification and reconfiguration of the operating system.
Another prior art solution to the problem of protecting a computer, such as a personal computer, is usually known as System Restore, which periodically creates backup copies of selected system configuration files that the user can employ to roll back the operating system to a previous configuration state. Such a scheme burdens the user because these restore points, as they are called, must be clearly and verbosely documented if the user is to discern which restore point is right for a given situation. Also, rolling back the system might evoke a conflict between the older configuration files that are restored, and the newer files that remain.
Again, neither the System File Checker nor the System Restore provide protection for the whole operating system and all of its constituent parts. Worse still is the allocation of resources and speed and performance degradation that accompanies the use of the System File Checker and the System Restore.
Still more invasive methods of protecting computer integrity and functionality exist, wherein third-party application programs are installed to scan for viruses, and spyware. These methods invariably fail because of the incessant need to update the software with the latest spyware and virus definitions that are required literally on a daily basis. Equally troubling is the deep intrusion into the quality of the user's computing experience perpetrated by such software which seeks to scan every file that is written to the mass storage device partition. As was the case with the System File Checker and the System Restore, there is also a performance, speed, and resource penalty to be paid even more so in the case of anti-virus and anti-spyware software.
The following patents are representative of the field pertaining to the present invention:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,519,762, issued to Tom Colligan, Jonathan Ellis, and Hunter Robertson, describes a computer system having capability for restoration of a hard disk drive, said computer system comprising at least one processor, at least one hard disk drive, a software image stored on said at least one hard disk drive, said software image including a factory downloaded image which is subject to corruption, and a protected software restoration image not prone to a typical corruption, said protected software restoration image being stored on said at least one hard disk drive and available for use by said at least one processor in executing the restoration of said software image on said at least one hard disk drive to a like new factory downloaded image condition.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,365, issued to Roy M. Jenevein, Heidi S. Kramer, Derrick S. Shadel, Andy V. Lawrence, and Val A. Arbon, describes a computer system comprising a processor, a volatile memory in operable connection with the processor, and a persistent storage medium accessible to the processor, a partition stored in the persistent storage, user data stored in the partition, file system data stored in the partition, and at least one image which contains a copy of at least a portion of the user data, the image also being stored in the partition.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,845,464, issued to Stephen Gold, describes method of performing a recovery operation of an operating system for a computer entity, said computer entity comprising a data processor arrangement and at least one data storage device, wherein said data storage device is configured into a plurality of separate partition areas, a first of said areas being an operating system back-up area partition which is not used for direct running of an operating system by said computer entity, a second of said areas being a user setting archive partition area, said method comprising causing the data processor arrangement to perform the steps of copying a back-up operating system from a back-up source onto the operating system back-up area partition which is not used for direct running of an operating system by said computer entity, copying user settings data from said back-up source to the user setting archive partition area of said data storage device, and resetting said computer entity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,934,881, issued to Stephen Gold and Peter Thomas Camble, describes a method of restoring an operational state of a computer entity, said computer entity comprising at least one data processor, at least one data storage device, a primary operating system capable of running said computer entity, a secondary operating system capable of rebuilding said primary operating system, and a known good, pristine copy of said primary operating system, and patch data representing a portion of code which replaces a portion of said primary operating system stored on said data storage device, said method comprising the steps of booting said computer entity to operate from said secondary operating system, rebuilding, under control of said secondary operating system, said primary operating system from said copy of said primary operating system, and applying said patch data to the rebuilt primary operating system.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,024,581, issued to Frank C. Wang, Donald Messerli, and Dennis E. Kelly, describes a system for recovering the content of a computer storage device comprising means for installing in a primary partition of the storage device, application programs and a primary operating system for controlling execution of the application programs therein and for installing a second differing operating system in a protected recovery partition, means for including said second operating system effective during installation of operating systems on the storage device for creating and storing a sector-based copy of the primary partition, and means for including the second operating system for restoring the primary partition from said sector-based copy in the event of corruption of the primary operating system.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,047,403, issued to Wen-Pin Lin, describes a system for operating system recovery in a computer system, comprising a data storage device, a first partition, a second partition including an image copy of an operating system, and a third partition including bootable files, and a basic input/output system having a system recovery function to activate the third partition and boot the computer system to the third partition if the system recovery function is executed, wherein after the computer system is booted to the third partition, the computer system unpacks the image copy of the operating system in the second partition into an integral copy of operating system and copies the integral copy of operating system to the first partition, deactivate the third partition, activates the first partition, and reboots the computer system to the first partition.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,111,203, issued to Jianfeng Hu, Gang Bai, Peng Zhang, and Wenbing Yang, describes method for implementing data backup and recovery in a hard disk of a computer, comprising (a) pre-setting a backup/recovery function key and a recording device on the hardware, wherein the recording device is for recording the information about the computer bootstrap mode, (b) powering a computer motherboard and booting a computer BIOS by triggering hardware, and if by pressing on the backup/recovery function key, storing information about starting a backup/recovery function in the recording device, (c) reading the information about the computer bootstrap mode from the recording device, if the information represents a backup/recovery function to be started, proceeding to step (d), otherwise, proceeding to step (e), and (d) operating the hard disk protection partition by BIOS, loading a kernel of an embedded operating system and performing the backup/recovery processing, or, (e) booting the computer with a preinstalled conventional operating system.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,430,686, issued to Frank C. Wang, Donald Messerli, and Dennis E. Kelly, describes a method comprising the steps of storing a first copy of the content of a first storage area in a second storage area, the first storage area including a first operating system, installing a second operating system and storing a backup/restore program and a second copy of the content of the first storage area in the second storage area, the second copy comprising changes occurring in the content of the first storage area since the first copy, selectively restoring the first storage area using at least one of the copies selected from the first copy and the second copy using the backup/restore program running under at least one operating system selected from the first opening system and the second operating system, and executing the first operating system in the first storage area before and after restoring the first storage area.
Notwithstanding the above prior art and the state-of-the-art as understood, it appears that the present invention concept wherein a computer with bootable restoration has a mass storage device with at least two partitions including a first partition for a primary operating system, and has the primary operating system so configured that the standard locations for storing user-created files are rooted on a partition other than the first partition, and has an image of the first partition residing on a partition other than the first partition, is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby.